Law enforcement, paramilitary and military vehicles transport officers and soldiers into potentially hazardous environments. It is common that these individuals will bring both personally worn weapons and additional weapons, including shotguns, assault rifles, submachine guns, and other tactical weapons. When an officer, agent or soldier requires additional firepower, they turn to readily available weapons that are carried within the vehicle in a vehicle mounted rack. The simplest of racks include a simple u-shaped clamp that is biased so as to provide a frictional hold on the stock and/or barrel of the weapon. However, these racks can sometimes fail while travelling on bad roads and trails, letting the weapon bounce around the vehicle interior. Depending on the condition of carry, whether loaded or unloaded, and whether a round is in the chamber, this can become an unsafe situation.
Weapons carried in simple mounts are not secured against theft or pilferage. This is particularly problematic in urban situations. Theft of firearms from police vehicles domestically and from the military are an ongoing problem. The earliest vehicle mounted gun lock assemblies with a locking device were developed in the 1930s. The basic design for this continues, with a few improvements, to remain in use. The prior art, as set forth in FIG. 1 is a combination of a gun lock assembly 100 with a closing gate 102 and a locking device 104. FIG. 1 is an end-on view of a locking vehicle gun lock assembly that is derived from FIG. 8 of issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,280 entitled LOCK DEVICE, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference. This illustrative gun lock assembly represents the current state of the art. The conventional rack is formed of a zinc alloy that affords a strong, relatively light weight and affordable locking product. The zinc is not as strong as steel, but affords sufficient strength to resist mild to moderate forces. If, however, the lock is damaged or the key is lost, the weapon owner can eventually access and remove the weapon with the application of determined brute force.
The gate 102 encloses the article-receiving channel 106. The channel 106 is sized appropriately to the barrel of a weapon. The gate is provided with a lip 108 that makes contact with the upper surface 110 of the channel outer retaining wall 112. The lip 108 projects outwards, creating a space 114 between the lip 108 and the retaining wall 112. The gate 102 is typically held under tension by a tension spring 116. The spring is a conventional spring in various embodiments and is used by various manufacturers of such locks.
FIG. 2 is an image of a criminally-minded individual 200 who has made an unauthorized entry into the back or front seat area 202 of an illustrative police patrol car 204 for the purpose of stealing a gun 206 secured in a vehicle mounted gun lock assembly 208. The criminal 200 is equipped with a flat-head tool 210 (e.g., a flat-head screw-driver). The criminal 200 will use an exemplary screw-driver 210 to break into the gun lock assembly 208 and steal the gun retained therein.
The criminal inserts the end of the screw-driver 210 into the space 114 between the lip 108 and the retaining wall 112. The criminal seats the screw-driver 210 in the space 114 and pries the screw-driver upwards in a rotating motion 302. This raises the lip 108 of the gate 102, causing flexure of the gate and a loading of force into the gate that will result in fracture along or near to the anticipated failure axis AF. The gate fracture provides access to and removal of the enclosed firearm. Thus, forcible entry is actually facilitated by the geometry of the lip 108 and the space 114. Undesirably, this affords an opportunity for any criminal armed with a screw-driver, pry bar or similar tool that can be placed between the lip and the body of the rack to help themselves to a law enforcement weapon.
It is therefore desirable to provide a vehicle gun lock that is relatively difficult to force open, and if broken, defines a geometry that will not provide ready access to the contained weapon. It is further desirable to provide a tamper-proof gate that can defeat bending attempts involving a screw-driver, pry bar or other readily available implement.